What is Easter Egg? - Definition from Whatis.com

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Easter Egg

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Easter Egg

An Easter Egg is an unexpected surprise -- an undocumented procedure or unauthorized feature that's playful in nature or gives credit to the software developer or chip designer. Like their namesakes, Easter Eggs can be quite elusive and hard to find.

Here is a very simple Easter Egg for you to try:
1. Go to Google.com
2. Type "let it snow" and hit enter

See also: microchip art
The Smithsonian Museum has collected examples of hidden chip art.

Related glossary terms: Dolby Digital, Grace Hopper (Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper), HCI (human-computer interaction), Earth's mean radius, GUID (global unique identifier), HDTV (high definition television), Direct Memory Access (DMA), FOLED (flexible organic light emitting device), FIFO (first-in, first-out), I2C bus (Inter-IC bus)

Contributor(s): Cindy Yager

This was last updated in April 1998

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